This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans native Regis Prograis is coming back home for a huge title fight this summer.

The WBC World Champion held a press conference Wednesday afternoon for the formal announcement of his July 14th Super Lightweight Championship fight against fellow undefeated fighter, Juan Jose Velasco. Prograis is 21-0 and Velasco is 20-0. The fight will be at UNO’s Lakefront Arena as a lead-in on the ESPN telecast to the Manny Pacquiao fight that night against Lucas Matthysse.

For Prograis, who goes by the nickname the Rougarou, he couldn’t be more excited about bringing a fight of this magnitude back to his hometown– something that’s been a goal of his since he began his career.

“A long time ago, I said I’m going to be the man to bring big-time boxing back to New Orleans,” Prograis said. “Now is the chance that I’m going to do it. For a lot of people, boxing is not big in New Orleans because they don’t see it. That’s why I want to be the person they’re seeing. Right now it’s Vegas and New York but guess what? In the next few years, I’m going to change it. I’m telling you I’m going to change it. It’s going to definitely boost up the economy and everybody in the world is going to come back to New Orleans. Ali fought here, Duran fought here, Sugar Ray Leonard fought here.”